The use of the word flour and bran (Line 480-482) in relation to womanhood is displayed within the text. What does this mean and why do you think it is used as some sort of description of what has happened to the wife over time?
ENGL 201 | British Literature to 1800
Prof. Myra Seaman | Spring 2016
In these lines the Wife explains, “the flour is goon, there is namoore to telle,
The bren as I best kan, now most I selle.” Here, she is insinuating that flour is the more desirable but she instead she will make use of the bran she already has as best she can. It appears she has accepted the fact that she is not the perfect, virginal creature men expect women to be but that being said, she is not horrible either. She has made earlier statements comparing women to bread, comparing young virgins to wheat bread and older women to barley and claiming that although wheat is favorable both are equally nutritional.
I think that you make a great point in your analogy of the flour and the bran and I’d like to expand on it a little. While it is true that in this quote the witch makes it clear that most will obviously find the “flour”, or young beautiful women, more appealing than the bran, it is the bran that has higher nutritional value because of its high vitamin content compared to flour. Essentially, she is saying that while she lacks in the attractive qualities that flour has, she makes good use of the good qualities she has. She has learned to be grateful because she experiences poverty, “whoso that halt hym payd of his poverte,/ I holde hym riche, al hadde he nat a sherte,” (1185-1186). She also has “sapience” and “pacience” (1197-1198) (or wisdom and patience). These qualities don’t give her any of the beauty that the “flour” offers, but it gives her inner beauty that which the flour may never experience.
I believe this words are meant to describe the aging process of womanhood. Flour is used to show the youth and being more desirable for men. She compares virgins to white bread, and wives barley bread. She thinks bran is sturdy and is what makes up a wife.
The comparison reminded me of the prologue when the wife talks about china versus regular plates as a comparison of virgins and wives and how both are needed. Flour is technically finer than bran and more desirable. However, the “hag” admits to coming from poverty which could be a why she associates with the bran which is cheaper. I also think she uses it to talk about how women become less fine in age, rougher and their value is within what is inside instead of outer appearances, similar to bran which comes from the hard outer shell of grain.